Resurfaced Biafran separatist leader claims he is in Israel

Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu attending a court hearing at the federal high court in Abuja, Nigeria on January 29, 2016. Nigerian separatists have called for his release or they will blow up a merchant ship with its foreign crew in it. AP

Missing pro-Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu gave a radio broadcast on Sunday saying he was in Israel, suggesting he owed his survival to the country.

Mr Kanu, a former London estate agent, heads the Indigenous People of Biafra movement and the outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra but has not been seen in public since September last year.

He maintains the Igbo people, who are in the majority in south-east Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and it is his mission to lead them to the promised land of Biafra.

There had been fevered speculation that Mr Kanu was in Israel after a video live-streamed on Friday via the Facebook accounts of his known associates appeared to show him praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, sparking questions over how he had managed to leave Nigeria.

Mr Kanu is facing treason charges in his homeland and had been on bail at the time troops were sent to his home city of Umuahia in Abia state, south-east Nigeria, in September 2017.

He then failed to show at his trial in the capital, Abuja, sparking speculation as to his whereabouts.